Afterword

Important though it is to avoid the pitfalls of poor reasoning, it is more important to concentrate our energies on mastering those positive principles that make for its happy opposite—sound reasoning. And this is where practice comes in. Logic can be perfected as an art only by our putting it to work, by regularly applying it to real-life situations. We could never complain of a lack of opportunities for doing this; all our waking hours are chock-full of situations that demand logical responses from us.

The art of logic is like no other, for it goes to the very core of what we are. The poet Pindar offers us some radical advice when he tells us to “become what you are”—by which he means “become human.” If “being logical” is not exactly the sum total of “being human,” it is, I like to think, a very important part of it.